Deadline to naturalize foreigners’ offspring expires

Santo Domingo.- The deadline for offspring of foreigners born in the country to register for the Special Naturalization Law 169-14 expired Sunday, with just 7,500 people enrolled to qualify, said Interior and Police deputy minister Washington González.

He said only Congress can can again extend the dealine, as several organizations have requested.

"We’ve done every procedure that had to be done…, Haitian nationals understand that their government didn’t provide them the papers, that’s a case beyond our control, if so will they’ll never be provided documents and this process would be greatly inconvenient," the official said.

In late October when just over 3,000 applications had been submitted, the Senate passed a bill from president Danilo Medina to extend the period in Law 169-14 by 90 days, which establishes a provision for people born in country but irregularly registered.

The offspring of foreigners regularized in accordance with the Foreigners Regularization Plan may opt for ordinary naturalization.

As of Sunday the government hadn’t announced any intention to extend the deadline, while Interior and Police reported that over 60% of the people who went to the Registry offices during weekend sought to enroll in the Plan.